Grass is commonly maintained with lawn care machinery such as lawn mowers, lawn tractors, and/or the like. Walk-behind lawn mowers are often compact and inexpensive, and are usually configured with comparatively small engines of less than about 200 cubic centimeters (cc). At the other end of the spectrum, traditional ride-on lawn tractors or other riding lawn mowers can be quite large, have engine sizes generally exceeding 400 cc, and can be configured with various functional accessories (e.g., trailers, tillers, and/or the like) in addition to grass cutting components. Attempts to create smaller, less-expensive riding lawn mowers have been unable to overcome various difficulties and/or have been configured with drive systems having certain performance deficiencies.